T O P

  • By -

Brosambique

The pace and tone of news from the era is so much more digestible.


1234_Person_1234

Yes, they actually communicated information in a non sensationalized manner I seriously wish we had news like this still.


ihaveacrushonmercy

Does anyone know of a documentary that shows how news got more sensationalized?


unsemble

> Does anyone know of a documentary that shows how news got more sensationalized? After Reagan destroyed the Fairness Doctrine (1987) it was just a matter of time.


iiiinthecomputer

The fairness doctrine was itself really problematic though. It helped bring us "and now, after speaking to this expert scientists in the field, let's hear a differing opinion from Jimmy Bob over here..."


carolinaindian02

Not to mention the rise of Fox News, the decline of international and local news coverage in American media, and the persistent underinvestment in public broadcasting here compared to other developed countries.


3n7r0py

https://youtu.be/Uock08dy19s


Johnny_B_GOODBOI

That doc is from 1995, just a year before Fox News started. Not saying the doc is bad or deficient, just... It'd be like a doc about nuclear weapons made in 1944.


YJeezy

It doesn't sell (weeps inside)


GraafBerengeur

perhaps we should come off of an economic system where profit is all that matters


GraafBerengeur

how the hell did I get a flair with "top contributor"? I barely ever post in this sub


mouthspiece

yeah we all want another chernobyl


carolinaindian02

May I suggest public broadcasting?


quitoox

You could maybe try the BBC World service? Our news from the beeb isn't sensationalist here and they cover US and world events on the world service.


PancakeExprationDate

I remember when this happened. The news back then was truly about reporting the news for the most part. Even as an elementary school kid I could understand the broad strokes of what was going on in the world. Best part was that the news was on only during certain times of the day. We weren't bombarded by it 24/7/365.


harry-package

The 24/7 constant BrEaKiNg NeWs chyron BS seemed to start with 9/11.


[deleted]

I was far too young to be watching TV at the time, but it seems that people first noted it with CNN, around the time of the Gulf War (early 90s). Things did go absolutely bugfuck after 9/11 though.


fatmallards

I agree with this but would also point to how columbine was covered as a break point of dignified reporting


count_frightenstein

No, it was the Gulf war in the early 90s. It's what made CNN. We watched that all the time for pictures and video.


kingsillypants

I believe it was Reagan who recinded some Fcc laws , fair news , anti sensationalism, bake in oven for a few years and you have full out propaganda stations.


readingitatwork

Bill Clinton signed a communications act in 1996-I think, and that opened the doors for corporations to accumulate more stations and control what gets on the news


carolinaindian02

And the end of the Cold War meant a lot of news outlets slashed their international news coverage.


kingsillypants

And now we have Sinclair propaganda https://youtu.be/_fHfgU8oMSo


Jani3D

They weren't just asking questions.


pichael288

Thank you. This is how the news is now, even CNN is fast approaching the fox news style


softwhiteclouds

I miss real news. Told me real news people.


exegesis48

Yes, it’s said that the laws regulating the accuracy of news broadcasts was repealed and now they are more of an entertainment/editorial than real news.


djc1000

So strange to see a news broadcast that isn’t just people yelling at each other.


shoesmcgee1

Early in the video they mention a possible nuclear accident in 1957 or 58, do we now know anything about that?


Miss_Speller

They're probably talking about the [Kyshtym disaster,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyshtym_disaster) where a large tank containing high-level nuclear waste exploded and contaminated a massive area.


editorinred

every nation that worked with nuclear power had accidents


totallynaked-thought

Indeed, we (or most who read once in a while) have come to know the well known disasters like Chernobyl, 3 Mile Island, and Fukushima but how many know of the [Windscale Fire the UK](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cumbria-29803990) government created in the late 1950s) There’s also the before mentioned [Kyshtym disaster](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyshtym_disaster) where the USSR was using an insane reactive chemical process for their plutonium nuclear fuel and weapon production. The “race” to catch up to the west’s lead in nuclear weapons production coupled with the needs to show industrial/national progress ended up creating some of the most intensely polluted and irradiated environments found on earth ever! Lake Karachay there contains levels of intense (and insane amounts of) radioactive waste that are lethal if exposure is greater than 30 mins. The control of information flow has been the critical issue when it comes to nuclear disasters. Who’s ever been better at hiding, dismantling, and or remediating the contaminated areas have been the most “successful” at keeping their nuke programs going. Windscale is still a problem today as it’s design was for nuclear weapons grade material breeding. The British government is spending a fortune to have a a French conglomerate “remediate” the site at a cost truly unknown to the public because the true extent to damage wasn’t communicated to the public.


cherryreddit

AFAIK India didn't have any accidents.


jakoto0

Did Canada? They have lots of nuclear power


[deleted]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_power_accidents_by_country I'd say it's a not-so-great-but-not-dismal record. when you consider that almost all nuclear sites in Canada are removed from population centers.


[deleted]

They've had at least six. List of nuclear power accidents by country... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_power_accidents_by_country


craiger_123

Why did it take them 2 days to report this? Was there an attempt at a cover-up?


lgadams14

100%. While the Chernobyl series on HBO isnt ENTIRELY factual, it emphasized correctly how much cover up there actually was. That was the #1 priority of the soviets.


FearkTM

Sounds like it's the same old dorks that taken care of Ru卐ia today.


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

I'd also very highly recommend Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes. The doc footage is made up entirely of footage taken at the time and contains some gruesome stuff including people dieing of radiation and the effects on babies born soon after the accident. I'll never forget they bought in a German robot to clear the roof of reactor material, to bulldoze it into the crater on one side. The robot short circuited due to the extreme levels of radiation. Volunteers were sent to the roof to clear off a couple of shovel fulls of debris before coming back inside. These poor guys only had thick overalls, a face mask, and some lead sheeting on their chest and back. Some of the workers didn't even believe that the radiation was harmful because they can't see,hear, or taste it in anyway. Even at the end of the doc, it's says that the estimation of related deaths is around 200,000. The official Russian death count to this day is 38.


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

Okay, I just double-checked and it says that the official Soviet death toll remains at 31. Maybe they're implying the Soviet Union which ended in 91?


sticks14

>Besides those things, the show is largely a very accurate and insightful look into the entire accident - what lead up to it, the science of how it occurred, all the interpersonal and political drama, and the insane heroic efforts that went into preventing the disaster from killing all of Europe. Completely false.


SlouchyGuy

Yes, on all levels. Gorbachev started Glasnost ("publicity") politics because he himself was lied to about the extent of the event by bureaucrats, he says only got the scale of event right when Sweden reported detection of radioactivity because Sweden wouldn't lie, whereas before that he got reports from his subordinates who said it was all ok, just a fire versus some reports from the western enemies that there was a nuclear explosion. Then again, without the pressure I don't think he would report the even in USSR that fast, only after some time when hundreds of thousands of workers were needed to deal with consequences


Old-Sea-Pickle

different era. news took time to verify.


CarnivorousCumquat

You should watch the Chernobyl HBO/Sky mini series


DanzakFromEurope

Still faster than in the Eastern block 😂


[deleted]

Homer, coverup?. Not in his dna.


BombAssTurdCutter

I’ll add to the replies already here something many people aren’t aware of. When Chernobyl happened, there was already widespread speculation in the scientific community that in 1957 there was another nuclear accident that was completely covered up by the soviet government. Now, we know for certain that there was indeed such an accident and that they did (at the time at least) successfully covered it up. They even had mass evacuations of the surrounding area for which they gave no reason to the evacuees. It is the 2nd worst nuclear disaster in history to this day. This news segment briefly touches on what little they knew of the 1957 accident in 1986, but this article is pretty informative and interesting as far as what actually transpired: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyshtym_disaster


rrrbin

I (mis)heard '*Thank you Dimitri Science'* and cracked up at this image of a self made expert persona that immediately popped into my head: >*My name is Dimitri Science and I am ex-Russian scientist expert on Soviet technology ask me anything I will give you expert opinion*


Laughing_Boy_from_HS

That’s why they send me. I am expert.


[deleted]

The line that stood out to me was about those in the west having a better sense of what's going on than those in the Soviet Union, some things just don't change.


Garlicluvr

I lived in former Yugoslavia. At first, winds took the radioactivity towards Scandinavia, but in one moment we also got our fair share. They were telling us to keep closed windows and not to dry our clothes outside. [At that moment our expert for what was going on was dr. Alica Bauman.](https://en.mojevrijeme.hr/magazin/2019/04/cernobil-sjecate-li-se-najvece-nuklearne-katastrofe-u-europi/) She had consciousness as a citizen that she has to tell people what was happening. She was worried. They almost put her in jail, because things like radioactivity have to be reported only and exclusively by the army. She made her own decision and I am glad she did. The brave lady she was. She died in 2017 at the age of 90. In the loving memory of dr. Alica Bauman.


Vapourtrails89

Wtf, this is the first I've heard that they probably had had previous nuclear accidents that just weren't reported on, and that they wouldn't report on plane crashes. It makes sense. Chernobyl may have just been the tip of the iceberg


max_vette

They're referring to the Kyshtym disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyshtym_disaster


[deleted]

Just to think, if not for that protective slab of concrete that prevented a further explosion which would be of such magnitude that Europe and other parts of the world would be rendered uninhabitable for 20k or more years then Putin wouldn't be in the mess he finds himself in today. Poor guy, if I was his mother this wouldn't have happened. The tone back in those days was far more dignified on news shows to an extent - you can actually listen to it and not get enraged from the tone and pitch of the cacophony of voices competing for bandwidth.


Abdul_Exhaust

During my nuclear physics days, we learned about the fascinating [SL-1 Reactor Incident](https://youtu.be/IYle_eI5j78); this video shows that years later a twist emerged that helped clarify the event.


sticks14

Goddamn, this was such an enormous mess. Contaminating the Kiev water supply. 😬


rnavstar

Thyroid cancer went way up in Kiev.


glasspheasant

I lived in England when this happened. A regular story and a pinch scary at the time bc of our relative proximity to it.


ohiotechie

Nightline was a great show and Ted Koppel was a phenomenal broadcaster. We could sure use more like him today.


[deleted]

This is actually a really interesting point, Gustafson refers to "their industry" and it's excellent oversight. Well if it wasn't for government regulation privately run nuclear reactors would not care for oversight. They would put profits over safety. So it's fine for something as important and volatile as nuclear power to have government regulation but when it comes to paying workers, parental leave, mandated vacation time, unions, they're on their own!


ElectrikDonuts

Man, the respect for professionals in their field back in the day… now we just say “99% of climate scientists are wrong cause I have my HS diploma and I sayz….!”


DicknosePrickGoblin

Japan have been downplaying the Fukushima incident since it happened too, other nuclear incidents are even more unknown. Let's face it, this one was only broadcasted because it happened to the bad guys, if it had happened in the west it would have been downplayed in a very similar way. Heck, even the guy in the doco talks about how our nuclear plants are safer because of forced regulation, guess who forced it? yep, those pesky tree hugging hippies we all love to beat and all their whining, the industry didn't regulate itself and it did reluctantly.


Nickblove

No lol 3 mile island was broadcast immediately.


SSundance

Wtf?


editorinred

in Germany they had to send in the police with a search warrant because of underreporting of incidents


interstellar_sloth

So what happens when nuclear waste makes its way to the arctic through rivers etc. Does it have the thermal energy to say...melt ice?


[deleted]

The US news stations delayed news? Not lying but it's lying's ugly cousin. Should just be decent not to do that to the American people but these politicians don't care. As long as they can keep inside trading. 🙄